Investigation of Pre-service Science Teachers' Self-efficacy Beliefs of Science Teaching

The scope of the study is to investigate the pre-service science teachers' self-efficacy beliefs of science teaching with respect to gender and grade level. Using the survey approach, the data of the study were gathered from 114 pre-service science teachers enrolled in the Faculty of Education at two universities in Turkey. The data was collected using a likert type scale, science teaching self-efficacy belief scale with 23 items, originally developed by Enochs-Riggs (1990). Variance analyses (two-way ANOVA) was performed on the collected data to reveal whether there are significant differences in science teacher candidates' self-efficacy beliefs of science teaching according to grade level and gender. The results of analysis showed that there was no statistically significant difference in pre-service science teachers' self-efficacy beliefs of science teaching with respect to both gender and grade level. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.